Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 71

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to Relatable. Hope you guys are having a great week. Today we are

00:00:05.980 going to talk about the bill that was passed in New York regarding abortion called the Reproductive

00:00:11.540 Health Act. And we're going to talk about kind of what abortion is, not kind of what abortion is,

00:00:17.540 but what abortion actually is from a scientific perspective. That's something that we haven't

00:00:22.180 actually touched on. We've talked about the morality, the logic, and a little bit about

00:00:26.460 the science of abortion and what a travesty it is, but we're going to talk about the science behind

00:00:31.420 it. We're also going to talk about the moral implications of it. And I know we talk about

00:00:35.440 abortion a lot. The only reason I'm bringing it up again is because this act passed and because I do

00:00:40.780 think it's going to have implications for years to come. And I also think it speaks to a deeper part

00:00:47.300 of the American heart that has been lost and is really, is really breaking. So we are going to

00:00:56.220 get into all of that. First, I want to tell you what the Reproductive Health Act actually is,

00:01:03.680 because there's a lot of misinformation out there. When I heard that it was passed a couple of nights

00:01:08.280 ago, I tweeted, you know, something along the lines of this is awful. New York has legalized late term

00:01:17.340 abortions. And I had all of these people, not all of these people, but I had a few blue check marks

00:01:22.280 saying this is a complete and total lie. This is not true at all. I had Amber Tamblyn, if you know

00:01:27.920 who that is, she was in the sisterhood of traveling pants. Great movie, by the way. She tweeted at me

00:01:32.760 that this is an abominable lie. And how could I spread this kind of misinformation? But when I

00:01:38.620 replied to her and said, okay, well, can you tell me how exactly this is a lie? What part of my tweet

00:01:43.920 is a lie? Does the law not actually legalize late term abortion? So can you tell me where the

00:01:51.780 falsity is in this? And of course, she didn't say anything or she said, I'm not going to get in a

00:01:56.360 tweet war with you. Just know that it's a lie. She said something along the lines of that. So

00:02:01.880 it's interesting how many Democrats, how many liberals, how many feminists have come out over

00:02:06.880 the past 24 hours saying, oh, stop spreading misinformation, you Republican religious pro

00:02:12.100 lifers. You're absolutely wrong. Late term abortion is not going to become more accessible with this

00:02:18.920 bill. But the problem is for them is that we can read and that the bill is online. It is absolutely

00:02:25.060 factual that this is going to make late term abortions more accessible. It decriminalizes abortion

00:02:31.580 through nine months. So I'm going to get into the details of that. You can go online, just type

00:02:36.700 in on Google, read Reproductive Health Act, New York, and the full text of the act will be online

00:02:42.440 for you to read. So if at any point you listen to me and you say, well, I don't really know if that's

00:02:47.440 true, Ali. Let me check the details on that. Please go online and read the act for yourself. You can read

00:02:53.260 various reports of the act that have done a pretty good job of interpreting what it means. You can read

00:02:58.140 from the right or the left. Really, the best interpretation that I got was from, I think it was a

00:03:03.140 publication called Buffalo News, which I'm sure probably doesn't lean to the right, like Buffalo,

00:03:10.980 New York. But also you've got National Review, you've got ABC, you've got USA Today. So you can

00:03:16.380 get the kind of interpretation of the act from both sides of the aisle if you're not trusting what I'm

00:03:21.520 saying. So let's talk about this Reproductive Health Act. First, let's just stop at the name for a

00:03:28.160 second. Reproductive Health Act. So when you think if you're a logically thinking person, which all of

00:03:33.660 you who listen to this podcast are, when you think reproductive health, you think, okay, that means

00:03:39.120 maintaining the health of the reproductive organs, right? Okay. So that would mean like STD, STI testing,

00:03:46.680 cancer screening, pap smears, fertility tests, maybe, probably condoms and sexual education,

00:03:54.020 like that probably all falls under reproductive health, right? That would just kind of make

00:03:58.400 semantic logical sense. But then, but then what's weird or what's weird is that we look at the bill

00:04:04.980 and we don't see anything about that. The only thing we really see is abortion. And you might be

00:04:10.320 thinking, well, Ali, wait, wait, wait. What does abortion, which takes the life of a child inside the

00:04:15.940 womb, what does that have to do with reproductive health? Does that keep someone's reproductive organs

00:04:21.420 healthy? Whose health does that actually benefit? And I would say that's a really, really good

00:04:28.560 question. That's a really great question. And the answer is nothing has nothing to do with

00:04:33.440 reproductive health. This is just the euphemism that they have used to sanitize abortion because

00:04:39.260 murdering children, dismembering them with forceps isn't exactly appealing from a PR perspective. So

00:04:44.940 they use this phrase reproductive health. Now, before I get into what the bill actually says,

00:04:50.000 I just want to go ahead and say, this is not me saying what abortion is and talking about the

00:04:57.180 atrocity of abortion and the atrocity of this bill is not a condemnation of women who have had abortions.

00:05:03.600 If you have had an abortion, there is freedom and there is forgiveness in Christ. You carry no shame

00:05:11.240 once you are in Christ. You don't have to worry about that. We have all sinned and fallen short of the

00:05:15.760 glory of God. And you receive the utmost compassion for what you've done and Jesus can heal anything.

00:05:22.640 So I just want to make that clear that we can separate this idea of abortion being sinful,

00:05:30.620 being horrific, being something that we should stop and the condemnation of women who have found

00:05:37.740 themselves in crisis and quite frankly, just didn't really know what abortion was. That's what I found

00:05:42.900 is that women who get abortion so often don't even know what abortion is. Don't even know what the

00:05:48.520 procedure is that they're going through. So I just want you to know that my heart is, it's broken for

00:05:54.960 you and what you went through and your trauma. And I see you and I hear you and I appreciate your story

00:06:03.020 and your experience. And this is not me pointing fingers at you saying, how dare you? This is talking

00:06:08.760 about an issue that is extremely prevalent to the heart of our country and that you probably agree

00:06:13.980 if you had an abortion needs to be stopped. So let's talk about what is actually in the bill.

00:06:19.840 So it says practitioners may perform an abortion when, this is a quote, when according to the

00:06:26.660 practitioner's reasonable and good faith professional judgment. Okay, so let's stop right there.

00:06:32.820 The practitioner's reasonable and good faith professional judgment. So that right there,

00:06:39.680 we already see that we're setting subjective standards for when a doctor can perform an

00:06:45.620 abortion. So a practitioner's reasonable and good faith professional judgment based on the facts of

00:06:51.540 the patient's case. The patient is within 24 weeks from the commencement of pregnancy or,

00:06:57.500 or this is the important part, or there is an absence of fetal viability or the abortion is

00:07:04.540 necessary to protect the patient's life or, another important or, or health. Let me read all of that

00:07:12.100 again. Practitioners may perform an abortion when, according to the practitioner's reasonable and good

00:07:17.280 faith professional judgment, based on the facts of the patient's case, the patient is within 24 weeks

00:07:22.640 from the commencement of pregnancy, or there is an absence of fetal viability or the abortion is

00:07:27.880 necessary to protect the patient's life or health. Now, previously, what this bill actually did is it

00:07:33.420 changed it from what it was previously. Abortion was a criminal offense when it was done anytime after

00:07:39.100 24 weeks after fetal viability, unless, unless the life of the mother was at risk. So if a practitioner

00:07:45.420 performed an abortion on a woman who was say 25, 26 weeks pregnant, and that her health was not at risk,

00:07:51.680 then they were criminalized for that. They could actually go to jail for that. But that is no

00:07:57.140 longer true. And that important caveat or health is really the thing that expanded abortion access in

00:08:04.400 this bill. Previously, you could still have an abortion up to nine months in New York if your life

00:08:10.020 was at risk. Now it's life or health. And under Roe v. Wade, and actually specified in a Supreme Court

00:08:19.560 case called Doe v. Bolton, that health exception includes, quote, all factors, physical, emotional,

00:08:27.400 psychological, familial, and the woman's age relevant to the well-being of the patient. So if you haven't

00:08:34.480 already noticed, this bill is intentionally general. It is intentionally subjective to the point where as

00:08:42.420 long as you check the box that says, yes, the woman's health is at risk, whether that's mental health,

00:08:48.400 whether that's emotional health, whether she's in a bad family situation, or whether she's just really

00:08:52.860 young and feels unprepared, you can legally, without consequence, perform an abortion on a fully formed

00:09:00.500 nine-month viable child. That is what this bill essentially does. Now, of course, you're not going

00:09:07.120 to hear that from Democrats. Of course, they are not going to say, yes, partial birth abortion. Great.

00:09:13.300 We are excited to expand access to it. No, of course, because they don't want to sound like

00:09:18.200 barbarians. But the fact of the matter is, it is barbaric. There's just really no way to get around

00:09:24.360 that. And you are going to hear proponents of this bill saying that, you know, that's absolutely not

00:09:30.780 true. And you should just know that the women who have to go through late-term abortions, they don't

00:09:36.560 want to have to go through these late-term abortions. They have to do it because their health is dependent

00:09:42.140 on it. Well, there's really no scientific reason that I have heard cited, no medical reason in which

00:09:48.620 in the third trimester, so after the baby is able to survive outside of the womb, that the baby

00:09:56.180 actually needs to be killed in order to save the life of the mother. There have been babies born as

00:10:03.400 early as 21 weeks who have been able to survive and to grow up and to be normally functioning children

00:10:09.820 and adults. So there would be no reason after 26 weeks in the third trimester that a baby would

00:10:17.080 actually need to be killed to save the mother's life. What you do, and I'm not a medical professional,

00:10:21.940 but I know enough to read online and to hear from people who have been in this situation and to also

00:10:27.440 read the opinions of actual medical professionals, that what you do is an emergency C-section. You take

00:10:33.640 the baby out and you do whatever you can to save the life of the child and to save the life of the

00:10:38.880 mother. It doesn't even make any logical sense to think, okay, well, I actually need to poison the

00:10:43.600 child in order to save the life of the mother in this situation. That doesn't even make any sense.

00:10:48.920 No, you as a medical professional, your responsibility is to save as many lives as possible.

00:10:54.020 So you try to save the child's life. You try to save the mother's life. And if the child dies

00:10:58.260 naturally, then the child dies naturally. And that is an absolute tragedy. But that's not an abortion.

00:11:03.520 You did everything that you could. I'm just not understanding. And maybe I need a doctor to

00:11:08.240 explain to me why snipping the spinal cord of a baby in the third trimester actually helps the

00:11:15.280 mother who has a separate body. That's what I don't understand. But you're going to hear that

00:11:21.260 from the left, that theirs is actually the side of compassion because women need to have abortions

00:11:27.600 in the third trimester in some cases when that's really not true. There doesn't seem to be any medical

00:11:33.560 reason whatsoever why that needs to be the case. So let's talk about, though, this 24 weeks. So 24

00:11:39.800 weeks is when a fetus is considered viable, even though, like I said, there have been babies who

00:11:44.700 have survived outside of the womb earlier than 24 weeks. This is generally when a fetus is considered

00:11:49.980 viable, able to survive outside of the womb. So 24 weeks is towards the end of the second trimester.

00:11:56.600 And this is at the point in which at New York at which you can get an abortion for any reason,

00:12:02.800 no matter what, just for funsies, if you would like, you can get an abortion. So let's talk about

00:12:09.580 what 24 weeks is. So 24 weeks towards the end of the second trimester. So you are about six months

00:12:15.860 pregnant. You are looking very pregnant at this point. Your baby has been fully developed for a very

00:12:21.800 long time. And you are able to you are able to do a whole plethora of different options for having

00:12:31.060 that abortion. And now I want you to think about this for just a second. So at 24 weeks, you've been

00:12:36.660 able to feel your baby move at 20 weeks. Even before that, a lot of times people feel their babies

00:12:42.640 kick. I'm at almost 18 weeks now. I haven't felt my baby kick yet, but that's normal when it's your

00:12:49.280 first child. But a lot of people feel their baby kick at about 17 weeks. I had my first sonogram

00:12:54.500 or actually it was my second sonogram at 11 and a half weeks. My baby was moving around. She was

00:12:59.360 kicking her legs. She was stretching. She was fully formed at that point. She just wasn't actually

00:13:04.280 fully developed, if that makes sense. She wasn't able to survive outside of the womb because a lot

00:13:08.220 of things still had to happen. She just had to grow. But she was a fully formed human being. So when you

00:13:13.300 think about double that time, 24 weeks, and just how developed and just how grown and just how

00:13:19.100 large a baby is at 24 weeks, that is the point at which you can have an abortion for any reason,

00:13:27.020 no matter what in New York. And if you want to have an abortion after that, you still can. It

00:13:32.180 just has to be for your health, whether that is mental health or emotional health, as I said.

00:13:38.060 So really what we need to read when we hear the word health and when we read this bill is that you can

00:13:44.540 basically have an abortion on demand from zero to nine months in New York. So if you're eight months

00:13:51.260 along and you lose your job and your boyfriend leaves you and you're destitute and depressed,

00:13:55.000 you can have an abortion, no questions asked. So just to be clear, we are killing babies for any

00:14:03.180 reason whatsoever at any time in the pregnancy that can survive outside of the womb. And we are not

00:14:09.500 supposed to consider this murder. We are supposed to consider this reproductive health. We are supposed

00:14:14.000 to consider this women's rights. We are supposed to consider this bodily autonomy. We're supposed

00:14:18.260 to consider this choice. I just want to make that clear that that is now who New York is as a state

00:14:23.880 and probably or hopefully not, but one day who we will be as a nation if we don't take action.

00:14:31.300 But here is the backwards mentality that so many people on the left that so many pro-choicers have.

00:14:36.860 Um, so Alyssa Milano tweeted this, and this is very mainstream for people on the left. She says,

00:14:42.780 there isn't a side in this debate that isn't pro-life. I am pro-life. I am also pro-choice.

00:14:47.520 Those calling me an infant killer are anti-choice. Once again, your religious beliefs do not carry more

00:14:54.380 weight than scientific facts and my physical autonomy. Okay. So these people, they want to talk

00:15:01.000 scientific facts and physical autonomy, but they don't want to talk separate DNA at conception.

00:15:06.160 They don't want to talk about the fact that this is a separate body from the time that it was

00:15:10.400 conceived. They don't want to talk about a fetal development. They don't want to talk about

00:15:14.020 embryology. They don't want to talk about science at all, but this is what we see with a new age

00:15:19.300 progressivism that not only is progressivism, their religion, it is also their science.

00:15:24.340 It is their own Orwellian universe in which war is peace and ignorance is strength and freedom is

00:15:29.860 slavery. And we're just supposed to buy into it. And if we don't, we are the religious zealots and the

00:15:34.520 bigots. Um, there was another person who tweeted at me. I don't think that I copied it on, on my notes

00:15:43.820 who tweeted at me that, um, well, more children are dying from, from measles and from gun deaths.

00:15:51.700 So I must be mandatory, uh, vaccinations. And I must also be fighting for gun control. If I'm truly pro-life.

00:15:59.580 First of all, there are about an average of 1300 children, not even just infants that are, uh,

00:16:07.880 injured or actually die from gun related injuries every year. But there were, there were about 330,000

00:16:16.420 unborn babies that were aborted by Planned Parenthood just last year. So I would suggest that you read a

00:16:22.960 book or maybe do a Google search before you come and tell me that I'm not pro-life for not fighting for

00:16:28.580 the causes that you have deemed more important than abortion. What really bothers me is that the

00:16:34.540 side that's okay with vacuuming the kids out of the womb when they're at 24 weeks, when they're fully

00:16:39.600 formed is trying to co-opt the pro-life phrase. I'm sorry. No, you're, you're not going to be able to

00:16:46.460 do that. Sure. You might be right on some other stances. I'm not saying that you don't have a moral

00:16:51.640 high ground in other places, but no, you cannot call yourself pro-life and also say, I'm okay with

00:16:58.880 partial birth abortion. I'm okay with, uh, ripping children limb from limb and, uh, inside the womb.

00:17:04.660 That's just not pro-life that does exempt you from the pro-life cause. They try to attach it to all of

00:17:11.960 these other things. They try to attach it to being open borders. They try to attach it to being, uh,

00:17:17.180 pro-gun control when none of those things have to do with being pro-life. None of them do gun control

00:17:24.820 and being pro-life are actually completely opposite. The reason I am pro-gun is because I'm pro-life

00:17:30.780 because I believe that innocent life has a right to be defended. But all of these people, once again,

00:17:35.620 as I've said so many times, all they have are straw men. That's all they have. Uh, the reality is,

00:17:41.940 is that this is equal immorality. This whole abortion issue, it's equal immorality to slavery.

00:17:46.860 It's equal immorality to the Holocaust. It's equal immorality, uh, to the Japanese internment camps.

00:17:52.440 It is equal immorality to Jim Crow, to lynching, to segregation. Um, and we are perpetrating yet

00:17:59.340 another, uh, yet another travesty when it comes to human rights, when it comes to civil rights,

00:18:05.680 it always happens when you dehumanize one group of people based on an arbitrary standard,

00:18:11.700 no matter how righteous you think it is. So when we were talking about slavery, we said, well,

00:18:15.960 they're not fully a person because, uh, they're African American. When you talk about the Jews

00:18:20.620 and Holocaust, well, they don't deserve to live because they're subhuman. They're termites as

00:18:25.520 Louis Farrakhan would say. So it doesn't really count that we're throwing them in gas chambers.

00:18:29.500 Same thing with Japanese internment camps. Uh, well, they're enemies. So they're not on equal

00:18:33.940 footing, uh, with everyone else in America. Same thing with Jim Crow, with lynching, with,

00:18:38.500 with segregation, still thinking that black people aren't, uh, equal in worth to white people in

00:18:44.960 America. It always leads to human rights travesties. And it's the same thing that's happening here.

00:18:51.420 Well, unborn humans just aren't the same as everyone else. They're subhuman. They're a clump of cells.

00:18:57.980 They're just pieces of tissue. Really. If you go online and if you look up, how does a second

00:19:03.500 trimester abortion happen? They will explain it to you, but they won't say, uh, body parts. They

00:19:09.440 won't say limbs. They won't even really say fetus. Most of the time, they won't say baby. They'll call

00:19:14.100 it tissue. They'll call it tissue. And we're supposed to celebrate that as progress. No,

00:19:21.020 we're going back. We are going back to the times of Hitler. We are going back to the times of slavery.

00:19:26.160 There's no way around it. And if you think I'm exaggerating, let's just talk about,

00:19:30.000 let's talk about what abortion is. Um, I know that this is a hard conversation and an unpopular

00:19:35.700 conversation to have. We would rather just talk about how all life is precious, but quite frankly,

00:19:41.180 I have seen more minds change when they realize what abortion is. Um, then when we just talk about,

00:19:48.320 for example, Psalm 139, that God made you, uh, and knew you when he formed you before he formed you,

00:19:55.200 uh, in the mother's womb, which of course is so important and is the bedrock of what we believe

00:20:00.340 that all, uh, human beings are made in the image of God. But, but we also need to be aware of and

00:20:07.780 educate people about the scientific reality of abortion. Um, so let's talk about that first

00:20:13.920 trimester. What happens? Uh, you can take a pill that poisons the baby. The baby will then exit your

00:20:19.220 body. Um, and it'll, it'll be just like a bunch of blood. It'll look like bloody tissue. That's

00:20:26.160 actually exiting your body. After you take the pill after a few hours, this is very painful. You

00:20:30.440 have a lot of cramps, you have a lot of bleeding. Uh, there's really no help for you. You just kind

00:20:35.900 of have to sit it out and hope for the best and hope the pain goes away. Uh, depending on how far

00:20:40.240 you are along in the first trimester, you can also get something called an MVA or a vacuum aspiration

00:20:45.260 abortion where the baby is actually sucked out of you with this vacuum like tube. And the second

00:20:50.920 trimester, you can also get a vacuum aspiration type abortion. It's called you get a D and E

00:20:56.980 abortion dilation and evacuation. That's a little bit more complicated because in the second trimester,

00:21:02.920 the baby is pretty large. And so your cervix is dilated for 24 to 48 hours in advance. All the

00:21:08.920 amniotic fluid is, um, is sucked out. Uh, the fluid, the baby actually needs to survive.

00:21:15.280 As I'm sure, you know, then they take the forceps and they tear off the limbs from the baby since

00:21:19.340 the baby isn't going to fit and the little vacuum. And then, um, they make sure that all

00:21:24.940 of the, that all of the body parts that are, that were on the fetus are all on the table so

00:21:30.940 that they didn't leave anything inside the woman, um, in the third trimester. And this is

00:21:36.080 now allowed in New York for any reason that falls under the broad term of health, uh, two days before

00:21:40.920 the procedure laminaria. That's some kind of, uh, I forget what actually it is. It's inserted

00:21:48.380 vaginally to dilate the cervix. Uh, your water should break on the third day and you should return

00:21:53.180 to the clinic. The fetus is rotated. So the baby is rotated and forceps are used to grasp and pull

00:21:58.140 the legs, the shoulders and arms through the birth canal. A small incision is made at the base of the

00:22:03.220 skull of the baby to allow a suction catheter inside the catheter removes the cerebral material.

00:22:09.040 That is the brain until the skull collapses. The fetus is then completely removed. Um, so that,

00:22:15.400 that, that's a third trimester abortion that is now legal in New York under pretty much any case,

00:22:20.780 as long as it falls under the subjective term of health. Um, and look, like I said, most women who

00:22:26.420 get abortions have no idea what really happens. They, they just don't know. Planned Parenthood doesn't

00:22:31.980 let you see the sonogram. Um, they're not open or even knowledgeable about fetal development.

00:22:37.920 They're not going to let you know that the baby, uh, can feel pain. Uh, even in the first trimester,

00:22:43.680 we see babies trying to fight for their lives and to resist the pain of abortion. Um, I just want you

00:22:49.240 to know that they are making, they are making money off of vulnerable women in crisis. And so if anyone

00:22:57.120 has an ulterior motive here, it's them. I mean, think about it, the pro-life versus the pro-choice

00:23:02.920 cause, uh, pro-choices have pro-choicers have an ulterior motive to being pro-choice because

00:23:08.320 Planned Parenthood is an extremely powerful organization that helps fund the democratic

00:23:12.800 party. And so if they get rid of abortion, Planned Parenthood goes bankrupt. They don't have

00:23:17.700 this large funder of the democratic party. Um, and this has become a sacrament now in the democratic

00:23:22.640 party. And so they can't let that happen, but tell me what benefit do I have to telling you to keep

00:23:27.360 your baby? What benefit, uh, what benefit do I have to tell, uh, poor mothers that yes, you should

00:23:34.940 keep your baby and put your baby up for adoption. Like, how does that benefit me? What ulterior motive

00:23:40.680 could I possibly have in telling you to do that? I have no motive whatsoever behind being pro-life

00:23:47.240 besides that. I know that it's morally right. And because I don't want babies to experience that pain,

00:23:53.420 I don't want women to be robbed of motherhood. I don't want them to be misinformed. I don't want

00:23:58.860 them to have to deal for the rest of their lives with the trauma of abortion. I don't want that.

00:24:03.740 I want, I want better for them. And I don't want us to devalue unborn life in this country because I

00:24:09.120 know exactly where that leads. I know it leads to the devaluing of other life as well. I know it leads

00:24:15.120 to eugenics. I know it leads to this stupid dying with dignity, AK assisted suicide movement.

00:24:21.340 It brings us to this point where we have a subjective standard of which life is valuable

00:24:26.000 and which is not that we are going to start aborting babies. Once we find out in the womb that

00:24:31.160 they are autistic, if that technology has ever developed, um, we are going to abort babies because

00:24:37.420 we find out that they're going to be left-handed and we don't like that. They're going to have red hair

00:24:41.600 and we don't like that. Um, that's where the devaluation of human life brings us into eugenics

00:24:47.660 into, uh, selective reproduction or basically selective birth. I don't want that for our

00:24:52.900 country because I don't think it's possible for a Republic to thrive or a public like the

00:24:58.080 United States of America without valuing life. That's why the declaration of independence says

00:25:02.580 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because without life, neither liberty nor the pursuit

00:25:07.340 of happiness exists. If you think that we can maintain freedom without valuing life, you're

00:25:12.940 wrong because freedom and morality, freedom and decency, freedom and human dignity go hand

00:25:18.080 in hand. They have to, or else it leads to anarchy. Um, and so to say that you are for abortion and also

00:25:25.540 on the side of freedom, you just don't understand the nature of freedom. You think freedom is doing,

00:25:31.820 uh, whatever it is you want to, without thinking of the cost, without thinking of the cost,

00:25:37.280 to the American soul. And that just quite frankly, doesn't make any sense. So what I want us to do,

00:25:45.920 the question always is how do we take action? What impact can we possibly have on all of this?

00:25:50.520 Well, I saw the movie unplanned last night. It's the story of Abby Johnson. She used to work at

00:25:55.740 Planned Parenthood and she laughed after she, it finally hit her. What, what abortion was in the evil

00:26:03.300 that she was really facilitating while she was working there. And she's worked ever since then

00:26:08.380 to fight against them and expose them. She wrote a book, got turned into this movie. And within the

00:26:14.500 first few minutes, I'm just going to warn you, I would not bring your children to this movie. It's

00:26:18.660 going to come out March 29th. Definitely go see it. Definitely bring your friends, bring your small

00:26:23.540 group, bring your pro-choice friends. If you're really brave, don't bring your kids. And the first

00:26:28.440 couple of minutes, I was weeping. I was sobbing, crying because it shows an abortion. And the first

00:26:34.900 couple of minutes shows an abortion at 13 weeks. And exactly what happens. I was bawling, crying

00:26:40.820 because on this little sonogram screen where they showed this poor child writhing in pain,

00:26:47.180 I saw my daughter. That's exactly what my sonogram screen looked like. And I just couldn't stomach it.

00:26:54.300 I mean, I'm already pro-life. I already know abortion is wrong and evil. And I actually

00:26:58.300 already know what happens in abortion. I've made myself watch videos just so I can be reminded

00:27:03.400 of the sin that our country is committing. And I could not take it. I couldn't take it.

00:27:10.100 But what I learned from this movie or what I was really reminded of is the power of the gospel and

00:27:15.860 the power of redemption and the power of prayer that God can do anything. And it was hard to watch

00:27:21.860 the movie and not think, OK, Abby, why didn't you leave earlier? God, why did you let this

00:27:27.240 happen? Why didn't you wake her up earlier to the reality of what she was doing? And then I realized

00:27:33.500 that God is fiercely committed to his own glory. And because she has that story, because she went

00:27:40.080 through all of what she went through, having an abortion herself, having two abortions herself,

00:27:45.100 working at Planned Parenthood and then coming out on the other side, all of the pain that she endured

00:27:49.180 and that she facilitated, wrote an amazing story of redemption that God is getting all of the glory

00:27:55.220 for. And sometimes, sometimes it takes it takes something like this for God to show just how

00:28:03.280 powerful he is for all of the odds to be seemingly stacked against him before he says, I'm doing

00:28:09.060 something. And he's always doing something. We know that. And so I am reminded, I am reminded that God

00:28:17.960 is always in control, even when it seems like he's not, even when an act like this passes in New York

00:28:23.740 and you have people celebrating it and you had people cheering. I mean, truly satanic. If that

00:28:28.540 doesn't shake you to your core and give you chills to see women cheering over late-term abortions

00:28:33.400 and calling it a victory, that God is still in control, that he's still over that. And as we talked

00:28:39.660 about on Tuesday, that he is a God of justice, that he is not going to let these things go unchecked,

00:28:45.780 that he is not ignoring it, that he is not standing aside, just shaking his head and crossing his arms.

00:28:51.700 He is doing something and he's asking you and me to fight. That's what he's asking us to do.

00:28:59.340 This is a gospel mission. This is not a political mission. This is not a social issue. This is a

00:29:04.840 gospel mission. The women in crisis who are thinking about having an abortion, they don't need shame.

00:29:11.800 They don't need condemnation. Yes, they do need education, but more than anything,

00:29:18.000 they need the gospel. They need to hear that they are forgiven, that they are taken care of,

00:29:22.620 that there is a father who is in control, who loves them no matter what they've done

00:29:25.960 and is going to take care of them. He needs us to come alongside these women and say, I've got you.

00:29:31.720 I've got you. I don't care what you've done either because I've done some bad stuff too.

00:29:36.080 I've messed up too. And guess what? I'm going to figure this out with you.

00:29:39.880 We're going to figure this out. I'm going to make sure that you have the care that you need.

00:29:43.060 I'm going to make sure that you figure out this whole crazy adoption process. I'm going to make

00:29:47.680 sure that you are protected from that boyfriend who is abusing you. I'm going to make sure that we

00:29:54.300 get through this together. That's what he's asking us to do as Christians. You have this crazy,

00:29:59.480 crazy faction within Christianity that says, actually, abortion is a form of compassion. It's okay.

00:30:04.860 Don't listen to that. It's a lie. And it is born of, ironically, the self-help movement that says,

00:30:11.540 whatever is good for you, do it. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, whatever God says

00:30:17.120 to do, do it. And the Bible says to value life, to care for the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized.

00:30:23.960 And there is no more oppressed or marginalized than the unborn child. So what we have to do is a,

00:30:31.380 share the gospel, share the gospel with everyone, you know, share the gospel to women in crisis,

00:30:36.900 be prey. I was reminded when I watched the unplanned movie, just the power of prayer and how God changed

00:30:43.460 Abby Johnson's heart because of the commitment of her family and people who stood outside that

00:30:48.300 abortion clinic praying. The power of prayer is incredible. It changes everything. Number three,

00:30:56.300 support your local pregnancy center or Save the Storks, which provides resources and tools to local

00:31:03.000 pregnancy centers. Just look up a life affirming pregnancy center that's in your area. And if you

00:31:09.060 can't actually drive there, if you can't volunteer there, try to donate there as much as you can.

00:31:13.440 It doesn't have to be a lot if you're in a financial bind, but I promise you that a cheerful giver

00:31:18.820 makes God happy and that you also will find joy and being obedient in that regard. And I also

00:31:27.120 encourage you to see the movie unplanned when it comes out March 29th. I'm not getting paid to

00:31:33.020 advertise for this. I do know Abby Johnson and she is awesome. I got to meet her at the Save the Storks

00:31:38.620 ball, but this is not a paid endorsement. I'm just endorsing this because I think it's a good movie.

00:31:43.520 And I think that it is a powerful rendering of what happens when God works, when he moves mountains,

00:31:52.220 when he does the things that we don't think he can do. And I do believe that can happen with

00:31:56.340 abortion in America. I believe it takes us speaking up, being loving, being kind, but not being afraid

00:32:02.060 to say when something is right and wrong. So many times I think we confuse being compassionate with

00:32:07.980 being quiet or being kind with pretending like we don't know. That's not compassion.

00:32:13.520 It's not compassion at all. Actually, it causes a lot of confusion and it encourages people to do

00:32:20.680 things that just aren't wise. But instead, we should be infusing light into darkness, infusing

00:32:26.060 truth into this world that is full of lies that calls something like abortion choice or reproductive

00:32:31.880 health or reproductive freedom. So that's my rant for you today. I hope that you guys got something out

00:32:38.540 of it. I love you guys. I will see you on Tuesday. If you have any suggestions, I know I said I was

00:32:44.120 going to do theological Thursdays and some of you got excited about that. I still want to do that.

00:32:49.260 I consider this a theological issue though. I still want to do that. So if you have any questions or any

00:32:54.620 suggestions for that, please let me know. I also, oh, I didn't talk about this on Tuesday, but I did want

00:32:59.500 to bring up just the amazing response that I had to the three myths that Christian women believe

00:33:04.660 by far the biggest podcast I've ever had and the messages that I've received from you guys.

00:33:10.300 It doesn't do anything for me and my ego. What it tells me is that, wow, there is a void that needs

00:33:18.560 to be filled by truth that you guys, thank God, thank God for discerning people like you guys. You guys

00:33:25.900 aren't satisfied with the self-help, you are enough, love yourself, self-care thing that's going on

00:33:32.360 within Christianity. You're not satisfied with that. And I've always, I've always thought people

00:33:37.740 are more hungry for truth than we give them credit for. And so, um, pointing all, all I did is point

00:33:45.380 people back to scripture, which is where I go when I am caught up in myself and, uh, caught up in this

00:33:53.760 whole self-absorbed self-focused movement. And I'm really, really excited about the book I'm writing

00:33:59.620 because it's going to be very similar to this. I think you guys are going to enjoy it. Um, I in

00:34:04.380 particular got a message from someone, I won't even read the whole thing. And I, I did get permission.

00:34:09.040 Uh, I did get permission to share this, who sent me this long message saying how she has struggled

00:34:16.280 with depression and with anxiety and with thoughts of suicide for years and herself, her, uh, not herself,

00:34:22.420 her, uh, well-meaning Christian friends have been telling her you're awesome. Just see yourself,

00:34:28.160 how God sees you just, you need to learn how to love yourself more. You need to learn how to just

00:34:32.280 kind of let go of the shame and, and look in the mirror and tell yourself you're beautiful.

00:34:36.680 And this person said that she felt so inadequate because she could never do that. She could never

00:34:41.600 figure out why she couldn't love herself. And then she was reminded of the truth that it's not about

00:34:47.960 loving ourselves. It's about God's love for us. It's not that we are enough. It's that we are

00:34:52.880 inadequate and God is enough. And that truth, it's changed me first of all, but it changes lives.

00:35:00.460 Uh, this is the gospel that has been preached for 2000 years. I didn't come up with it on my podcast.

00:35:05.380 It's been preached by Bible believing Christians forever. And it's been infected now with this

00:35:11.520 me centric Christianity, this Christless Christianity, which tells you that all you have to do in the

00:35:17.080 morning is tell yourself that you're in control, that you're a hero, that you're awesome and that

00:35:21.040 you're beautiful and that you've got this. So you can feel like a great big failure at the end of

00:35:25.460 the day, when you haven't done everything that you told yourself you would, right? There's no

00:35:29.560 comfort in that, but there's comfort in the gospel. There's comfort that, um, that Jesus won on our

00:35:35.080 behalf, that he, um, that he became perfect on our behalf, that he sacrificed on our behalf because we

00:35:42.540 could never be all of the things that the world demands of us, that God demands of us, but he could

00:35:48.200 thank God, thank God for that. So I just want to tell you, thank you for messaging me and letting

00:35:53.920 me know what that podcast meant to you and just what the biblical truth of it meant to you too.

00:36:00.240 That means more to me than you will ever know. And that's exactly why I have this podcast.

00:36:04.480 I love to talk about politics. I love to talk about culture and you know how much I love this country

00:36:10.420 and talking about all that, but I love to talk about what I think is really, um, burrowing in the

00:36:17.140 hearts of young women in this country. And it was very validating to understand that there are so

00:36:21.620 many of you that are just like me that are hungry for truth. Like we don't need the emotionalism that

00:36:26.640 female Bible teachers think we need. Like we don't need to be cuddled. Like we can handle

00:36:31.180 theological truths with the best of men. And I was just tired of being patronized and I'm like,

00:36:36.740 I'm glad that you guys feel the same way. Okay. That really is it. Love you guys. I will see you

00:36:42.640 next week. Have a great day.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - January 24, 2019

Ep 71 ｜ Calling Evil Good

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